The classical language of India that has lost it's value in the
modern world. It is also one of the oldest languages in the world-
perhaps the oldest to be recorded. All the ancient scripts are found
to be written in the same language.

The state language of Jammu and Kashmir and is spoken by more
than 28 million people in India. Urdu and Hindi have proceeded from
the same source. Urdu is written in the Persio - Arabic script and
contains many words from the Persian language.

India is a vast country, with lot of cultural and
geographical diversities. This has resulted in a number of different
languages spoken across the country. Some of these languages are
accepted nationally, while others are accepted as dialects of particular
regions. All these languages originated from the great languages of the
past, with most of them belonging to several major linguistic families,
like Indo-Aryan (spoken by 70% Indians), Dravidian languages (spoken by
22% Indians), Austro-Asiatic languages and Tibeto-Burman linguistic
languages.

The Indian Constitution (Article 343) declares Hindi to be the official
language of the Union. Hindi is also the mother tongue of about 20% of
the Indian population, living in the area known as the 'Hindi-belt' or
the 'cow-belt' of northern India. This includes the states of Uttar
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
and Rajasthan. Haryana and Himachal Pradesh also have Hindi as their
official language.

English language is the commonly used official language of India. It
enjoys a special status and remains the additional official language of
India. It is also the authoritative legislative and judicial language.
Apart from the more widely spoken English and Hindi, there are the
various regional languages as well. In fact, each state of India has its
own official language, apart from the numerous dialects. However, the
8th schedule of the Constitution of India lists 22 such regional
languages only, giving them official status.